Villach to Innsbruck

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We had another long day in the bus today. A lot of it was on small winding mountain roads too. It is hard to imagine that we haven't seen the big Alps yet. Today was spent in Tirol and the Dolomites. They seemed big and majestic to me. Bags were out by 7:15am, breakfast at 7am, departure at 8am. We had a long potty stop in Lienz. We had a quick photo stop at Lake Misurina, sadly it was during a thunderstorm. We had a lunch break for pizza during a thunderstorm in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Both those last 2 stops were in Italy. We had an afternoon pee break at a truck stop called Lanz. We got to the Hotel Grauer Bar in Innsbrook at about 5pm. We got checked in and those who wanted met downstairs at 5:45pm with Stephane for a quick guided overview of the Old Town highlights. It was still raining and getting dark early. We had seen Innsbruck's Olympic ski jump during the drive in. Our hotel is conveniently located a block from Innsbruck's Hofburg. The entire city block of it was covered with scaffolding! We did walk around St. Jakob's Cathedral and go inside. It was spectacular inside. We ended at Maximilian's Gold Roof and instructions how to walk only 2 blocks directly back to the hotel. Clay has been waiting to eat Schweinhaxen again since 2003 in Vienna. This was his chance. He was feeling the pressure. It lived up to his expectations. We found it very close by at Elferhaus . I think we all enjoyed our meals there. Mom & Carol did some souvenir shopping. We stopped in a supermarket. Clay & I got an ice cream. We got back to the hotel around 8:30pm. The ladies all hit the hotel bar for ice to take to our rooms. This hotel is centrally located and nice, but the mini fridges don't work and there are no self-service ice machines or ice buckets. Keeping a cold drink of water on hand is a full time job!

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